Of People and Places

One of the perks of having friends who study in Manipal is that you get to visit beautiful beaches and lush green backwaters in and around Udupi. We decided one day to go to Mattu beach, a beach I fell in love with. A place worth staying in forever, to take walks at sunrise and sunset, to hear the waves crash and allow ideas to churn in the mind. We rode on two wheelers and the ride to Mattu is fantastic.  There are quaint shoreside benches and hammocks. A picnic should be on the works! (Mattu is also famous for the Mattu Gulla - An indigenous variety of brinjal, so don't forget to buy some when you visit.)

To the lighthouse Up, up, all the way up. The dizzying spiral never comes to an end. You hold on to the railing for balance, and then you look down and you gasp! Your climb to the top is not without its rewards. Where else would you feel on top of the world; the sea – your kingdom, the colorful boats in its eddies – your subjects. You are high enough to get a bird’s eye view of the birds! I see a family of kites and their nest in one of the trees below. There’s a delightful little stream that has escaped from the beach, like a naughty child, and made inroads into the sand. The vast sense of scale, of space in the Arabian Sea is mesmerizing. If you look closely you might spot dolphins shimmering in the sunlight as they discreetly find their way to the surface. I am atop Kapu lighthouse, a 115 year old heritage lighthouse a few kilometers inland from the quaint town of Kapu near Udupi in Karnataka. It is a functional lighthouse over the choppy Arabian Sea, having guided...